


The bench and the band

by thewaterflowing



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, Genderswap, The quickest enemies to friends to lovers you'll find, This is a genderswap BTW, kind of, they are ladies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:14:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 13,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23326837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewaterflowing/pseuds/thewaterflowing
Summary: Harry and Liam dare use Niall and Louis’s bench once. Literally, one time. Louis holds a grudge. Also, Harry and Liam want to form a band.
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson, I don't remember the rules for tagging romantic/platonic relationship, Niall Horan & Louis Tomlinson, you can probably guess which is which
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [losingurshit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/losingurshit/gifts).



> In these trying times, I thought it might be adequate to finally post a fic I've been working on since 2017 (I started to rewrite it at the end of last year, worry not), it's still not over, but at least it's going to start being in the open! Plus, I'm going to have plenty of time to write it now (ideal procrastinating-writing-my-dissertation technique).

As soon as the teacher finished his last sentence, she was one of the first students (if not the very first one) to get out of the auditorium, almost running towards the door. She had put away her computer five minutes earlier and had been fidgeting, waiting for the green light, for the right moment, as she didn’t want to seem _too_ eager to leave and be perceived as rude. Don’t get it wrong, she didn’t like that teacher, at all. And it appeared that the feelings were reciprocal as he would sometimes shoot dirty looks at her whenever he would hear noises coming from her direction. She was always sitting next to extremely loud groups of people, but he always seemed to blame her. It was profoundly unfair and she hated it. Fortunately however, it wouldn’t last long anymore (at least, she hoped so).

It wasn’t that the year was anywhere near finished (it had literally just started), but it was her last year before finally completing her degree. Since she was pretty much certain of what she was going to do afterwards, she was willing to go through these studies she didn’t particularly enjoy. It wasn’t ideal and she couldn’t exactly say she was happy about the situation, but she had managed to get this far and this year alone stood between her and her achieving her dreams.

When she walked through the door, she immediately saw her best friend who was waiting outside of the auditorium. She lifted her head off her phone and shot her one of her brightest smiles. “Best friend” was not nearly a strong-enough way to describe the deep connection they shared; they had both agreed a long time ago that they were actually platonic soulmates. They had gone through loads together and had done so many things for each other and had been there every step of the way, even though they had “only” met as teenagers. They hadn’t spent their whole childhood together but, as they say, “friendship isn’t about whom you have known the longest, it’s about who came along and never left your side” and not to sound cheesy but that was exactly who Niall and Louis were to each other.

They had their own way of saying hello and it consisted in a very elaborate handshake that they had invented years ago. People had tried to copy their moves, copy the way their hands brushed the other’s skin, quickly going from an open palm to a fist and vice versa, or copy the way their butts bumped as a final touch. (Told you: very elaborate.) Sometimes, people would stare a bit too much, but they had agreed that everyone else was just jealous of how cool they were.

Her bag thrown on one shoulder, Louis put her other arm around her friend’s shoulder, gently shaking her:

“I’m starving, did you get me food as well??”

Her eyes were pleading, all she wanted was to get food in her tummy after that morning that has seemed to last forever and a half. She had barely eaten before leaving for university, a fact that was soon confirmed by the sound of her stomach rumbling. She looked at Niall like: see? I NEED food.

Without saying a word, Niall nodded and slightly opened her own bag (as if its content was scandalous and couldn’t be seen by anyone else) and Louis saw with a relief their usual lunch meal: two packets of two sandwiches, two bottles of water and a packet of cookies to share. (They both knew Niall would eventually give up her share of cookies to Louis, because it was always the case and they both knew it wasn’t about to change!)

“Happy?

\- Oh yup, very! You’re the best!

\- I know.”

Arm in arm, they exited the university and went to sit on a bench barely five minutes away that was facing the railway line. They had made this place their spot to eat lunch together. It was tradition. (Well, at least it was tradition when it wasn’t pouring down.) They couldn’t exactly remember when they had started to be organised like this; it was as though it had always been this way and it was perfect.

Which is why, when they reached the bench and saw two unknown girl already sitting on it, Louis froze. Shocked. Offended.

“What… the… fuck…?” Louis whispered as she pivoted to look at Niall in a horrified ‘so WHAT are we going to do now’ kind of way. The only answer she got out of her friend was a remarkable eyeroll. She even suspected her friend has seen her own skull considering how impressive it had looked from an outside standpoint.

“Jesus, how dramatic can you get? Niall laughed

\- Well, if I want to become a drama teacher, I have to know my subject through and through, don’t I…” She mumbled under her breath.

They both agreed (more like: Niall offered and Louis reluctantly agreed) to go to their plan B. It was a spot a little farther away. They had had to use it once when they’d seen a bunch of older guys next to their bench, they hadn’t given it a second thought and had kept walking until they had found that other place. It wasn’t nearly as comfortable or enjoyable as their bench, but it completed its purpose: being a place to sit down and eat.

As they walked behind their bench to the other place, Louis couldn’t help but give the pair of girls a dirty look. She did try not to notice the delicate curls one of them had… and she definitely didn’t pay attention to the sound of her laugh or to the way her head tilted backwards when the other one told a not-so-funny joke. That other bench stealer seemed pretty proud to have made Curly Bench Stealer laugh so hard. Against her will, Louis had to silently agree that having a joke be rewarded by such a nice sound was rather cool. But still… Bench stealers.

The annoying thing about the other place was that, since it was farther away, they didn’t have as much time to chill and talk as they had on their bench. So as soon as they had finished their sandwiches and opened the packet of cookies, it was already time to head back to university. On the way, they noticed that the bench stealers had already gone. It infuriated Louis: they were just a bunch of amateurs who hadn’t even realised the privileges that came with sitting on this bench and had probably left earlier than necessary. She angrily sighed, which Niall picked up on:

“You’ll see her again.” She winked

\- What are you even on about?!” Louis asked defensively.

\- Oh, nothing.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There you goooo! I hope you have enjoyed this little bit so far. I'm not exactly sure when you'll get another "chapter", so make sure you click subscribe and hit the bell for notifications... or whatever you have to do on here! Thank you for reading it until the end though, I appreciate it :)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My dissertation is over and I was reminded that I needed to continue this! Hope you like this new chapter

Days went by, maybe even weeks. The incident didn’t happen again. Their bench was available every single time they needed it. Strangely, it made Louis’s frustration grow every time. As they were heading towards it, she was always rolling up her sleeves in a ‘I swear to god, if SOMEONE has their ass on OUR bench, I will FIGHT’ kind of way. But it never happened and somehow, she seemed disappointed. Niall found it highly entertaining, but she didn’t say anything as it was far too amusing to let her friend figure things out on her own.

This day, as Niall’s lecture was ending half an hour after hers, it had been Louis’s turn to go get food for the both of them. She had had to run on her way back from the store because it had suddenly started raining, literally as if the apocalypse was on its way! (She always knew how to stay realistic and moderate.) The rain had completely messed up the way she had styled her short hair though. She’d tried to shake it as discreetly as she could while waiting for Niall, so it could dry faster but she wasn’t exactly sure about how it presently looked. She was about to take a look at her phone to see her reflection when she heard someone next to her.  
She was leaning against a wall facing the auditorium in which Niall’s lecture seemed to be about to end, and right next to her was a notice board where people could basically put up whatever they wanted or needed. And right there, right at this moment, she heard something that somehow sounded familiar even though she had only ever heard it once. It was a laugh. In the corner of her eye, Louis managed to catch a glimpse at brown curls. She gritted her teeth. Bench Stealer.

“Hey Lou, what are you waiting for?” Louis heard Niall ask.  
\- Uh?” She asked. Her eyes slowly focused and the sight of her best friend – who had her hand raised, ready to start their secret handshake – became clearer. “Oh yeah, sorry.”

A few seconds later, once they were done with their handshake and smiling proudly as they always did – they both felt a couple eyes were on them. It wasn’t something they weren’t used to, but this time, it came from way too close. Oh yes. Curly Bench Stealer (who also happened to be giant) was smiling, amused, and so was the Other Bench Stealer, standing right next to her. Niall reciprocated the smile. She had probably not realised who these girls were, Louis thought.

“That was pretty cool!” Giant Curly Bench Stealer said.

While, flattered (and weak), Niall was starting a conversation with the Stealers, Louis tried to look for the paper she had seen the two girls put on the board. Giant Curly Bench Stealer probably noticed her wandering eyes, so she told her with the warmest smile:  
“It’s this paper here! We’re trying to form a band, so if you are interested and have any skills really, just feel free to send a text to my number.”

And that was what the paper was saying indeed: “2 girls looking for 2 or 3 other girls to form a band. Good singing required. Any other skills appreciated but not necessary. Feel free to send a text with your info.” It was followed by a phone number that was pretty easy to remember, with lots of 2s and 8s.

“Oh, that sounds great! Maybe we could audition, we both sing! Besides, I play the guitar and she,” Niall nudged Louis who wasn’t exactly paying attention, “plays the piano.”

Louis turned her head at the speed of light, opening her eyes wide, staring at her so-called best friend who apparently could never shut up. Hadn’t she realised who they were talking to? Didn’t she too have the memory of that joyless day with the Bench engraved in her mind and heart forever and ever? Or… Maybe Niall was way smarter than Louis gave her credit for: maybe she was planning to crush the band from the inside as retribution for the bench… Louis pressed pause on her thoughts for a second there, even to her that scenario seemed a tad exaggerated… So, she just started at her friend, wondering what was going on inside her head.

“I don’t think I can, I have football practice.” She attempted.  
\- Dude, it’s literally once a week.” Niall said. She frowned looking at Louis’s face, wondering what seemed wrong with it. She eventually realised and gently pushed away a strand of hair that clearly didn’t belong in the middle of friend’s face. There, better.

While Niall was fixing her hair, Louis’s eyes quickly scanned the famous Bench Stealers. The Other Bench Stealer was shorter than the curly one, more of Louis’s height actually. She had long brown hair she had messily tied in a ponytail – some strands of hair were still escaping and framing her face. Her eyes were sparkling and had brightened up even more as soon as the band had been mentioned; she seemed pretty enthusiastic and up for anything. (Up for sitting on someone else’s bench probably!) As for Giant Curly Bench Stealer. Well. On the day of the incident, Louis had barely caught a glimpse at her face, but now… She was right there in front of her. And, oh boy. Her dimples – that her smile dug in her highly squishable cheeks – were to die for. Her curls were wild. That was honestly the only way to describe them, they were all over the place. At the same time however, they seemed to be right where they belonged. As if the chaos was just planned art.  
Something had happened on her face though, when Niall had touched Louis’s hair to push it away… There had be a veil of surprise? Sadness? Disappointment? Louis wasn’t exactly sure. There had been a lot of emotions at once. Mh.

Louis’s mind left her thoughts and came back to the ongoing conversation. She nodded at Niall, thanking her for fixing the mess that was her hair. That was exactly one of the reasons why she wasn’t disowning and cutting off her friend when she was talking too much. Niall was pretty useful, from time to time. (Louis would totally be lost without her.)

“Well, in any case, let us know and if you have time, you should probably give it a go! We don’t guarantee we’ll accept you after all ahah!” The Other Bench Stealer laughed. Her voice was light and when she was being funny, it lightened up her entire face. Louis couldn’t help but smile back and nod.  
\- We absolutely will!” Niall said, putting her phone back in her pocket after having taken a picture of the phone number. (Louis had already memorised it; it was that easy.)  
\- Great! Oh, and by the way, I’m Harry.”

That was it. Giant Curly Bench Stealer now had a name: Harry. Louis had to admit: it was more convenient this way… It didn’t take as much time to think of a two-syllable name as it did a four-word nickname. Besides, Harry really suited her. Louis couldn’t really explain it, but it just did.

“And I’m Liam.” The Other Bench Stealer added.

They were both nerds and offered their hands to shake. And, to no one’s surprise (especially not Louis’s), Niall enthusiastically shook both their hands as she introduced herself and Louis who had remained silent.  
“Nice to meet you Louis.” She heard Harry say as they were shaking hands. Her hand was soft, and her grip was fairly nice, making this awkward handshaking highly enjoyable.  
Eventually, she had to let go of Harry’s hand to shake Liam’s, which didn’t feel nearly as nice, but still wasn’t too bad… Why was she thinking about the handshakes so much?? She had no clue.

Eventually, Harry and Liam left them, after getting from Niall one last promise she’d get in touch soon. Once they were out of sight, Louis’s stomach reminded its owner it was hungry. However, it wasn’t the main thing Louis was concerned about:  
“Did you not recognise them?  
\- What? Do we actually know them from somewhere?” Niall asked, as innocently as she could.  
\- Yes?! The bench they stole from us the other day? Don’t you remember that?  
\- Oh Louis.”

Louis didn’t understand why Niall seemed so entertained and why she was acting all mysterious, looking like she knew something Louis didn’t.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading it so far, I hope you liked it! Don't hesitate to let me know!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiya, I've decided to work on this fic during Camp Nano so I'll try posting every week from now on! I hope you enjoy this new chapter!

A week later, Niall went to pick up Louis from football practice. She was there during the last minutes of the training and got to watch her friend fluidly move along the pitch, following the ball, making a pass to the other players or keeping it to herself. Niall was pretty much always in awe at how natural and comfortable Louis seemed to be on a field; it was truly a wonderful sight that filled her with pride every single time she had the privilege to actually see her in action.

Sometimes, she would let that pride overflow and start gushing over how talented she believed Louis was. Not only because these were her true feelings and she wanted, nay, she _needed_ to let them out, but also because she was fully aware that it would embarrass Louis… And that… was everything to her. She enjoyed more than anything the sight of her friend – usually confident, and borderline cocky – starting to blush and stutter, trying to get her to shut up.

During match days (which were the absolute best of times for Niall to start gushing), Niall was always sitting with Louis’s family (she almost was a member of it, to be fair) and they would all team up to see who would be able to make her blush the most. Louis’s mother Jay had given up on the contest and she was just enjoying hearing her family praise her daughter while she held her the closest to her heart… in spite of her relatively bad smell after such physical efforts.

Niall waited a few minutes more after the practice ended while Louis went to grab all her stuff in the locker room. In the meantime, she found herself talking a bit with Zayn, a girl she knew from before university, and even though they had lost touch since then, they still enjoyed being able to catch up with each other every once in a while, at Zayn and Louis’s football practice. Niall found it funny how Zayn was always all mysterious and quiet, but on the football field, she was fierce and feared. Quite impressive if you asked Niall.

“Hey Neil, I’m ready! Can we go?”

Niall quickly said goodbye to Zayn, adding that they really should grab a coffee of something, anything really, someday, and headed towards her car that was parked not too far away from the field.

It was one of these old cars that had been in the family for a decade and had gone through hell and back: it could only be opened by the key in the keyhole, one of its doors was better left constantly close, because otherwise, it was nearly impossible to get it to shut again. It didn’t have a radio, even less a GPS. Air-conditioning was non-existent and on the back of the car, a letter was missing from the name of the brand.

But damn. Niall loved that car. (So did Louis. Especially since it was her only ride to get back home after an intense football training! But she was also attached to it as she and Niall had shared many moments over the course of their friendship in that car. It was a good one.)

They both climbed in the car. Niall turned the key, making the engine roar, which was a sound that usually had Louis hold on desperately to the handle above her head. This time however, she didn’t really react. She seemed to be deeply focused on her own thoughts, which was quite weird if you asked Niall.

“So urm… how was the band thingy rehearsal, or whatever?” Her elbow resting on the edge of the window, Louis was staring at the road, trying to act as nonchalant as possible.

“It was great! They’re really cool, you know. I was the only one there though… It’d be so cool if you joined Lou!”

Niall had auditioned for Harry and Liam’s band pretty much the next day, after they had met. She had expressed how much she liked the idea and had simply started singing in the university hallways (Louis was extremely glad she hadn’t been there… She loved Niall with all her heart, but singing at university? That was a strong no from her.) How could anyone ever say no to her voice and her energy? Liam and Harry had pretended for a couple seconds there was any choice to make, but truly, they already loved Niall and they had almost immediately made plans. That was why they had met up this afternoon at Harry’s place to get to know each other more and to just sing and strum a guitar together for a few hours, getting used to each other’s voice and presence.

As only answer, Niall heard Louis emit a small and sceptical “mh”.

In the corner of her eye, she could see that her friend was looking at her phone’s screen as it was slowly lightening up after being switched off during the football practice. Her palms grabbed the steering wheel a bit tighter, a grin tracing its way to the corner of her lips, waiting…

Next to her, Louis saw a few notifications come up on her screen, all Facebook-related: two friend requests and a message. She wouldn’t really admit it, but she had been waiting for one of these… Mostly because accepting one of the friend requests would _finally_ allow her to have full access to the Facebook profile of someone who, she thought, wasn’t too bad on the eye. (Not that she had felt frustrated when she had realised the whole profile was protected and that the main photo was so small, she had had to zoom in, only to have it be even blurrier…) But before accepting anything, she went to look at the message waiting in her inbox.

There was that too small and blurry picture again.

“Uh uh, the Harry girl you were with earlier wrote to me… She probably wants me to tell you that you aren’t good enough for their band… Sorry mate.”

“Oh, shit yes, you must be right, I knew she hated me.” Niall grimaced.

Eventually, Louis tapped and opened the message. (She quickly blessed the fact that not having accepted the friend request first meant that Harry wouldn’t see the “read” mention, which also meant that she had time to come back with a quirky response… Or just a regular response… You know. Whatever.)

_From **Harry Styles** (active 40 m ago): “Hello. Liam and I were wondering if you had reconsidered joining the band. We can work around your football schedule if need be. We really like your voice. H.”_

Louis stared at the message, puzzled. She wasn’t like Niall who enjoyed singing around, including in the university hallways; her singing didn’t take place anywhere outside her room, or her shower. That was it. Ok, maybe she had extended her singing area to her entire house, and she might have hummed while listening to music at university, or on her way there. But she was fairly certain that she had never once sung anywhere near any of these two Bench Stealer People, right? How could they even know what she sounded like? There was no way… Unless…

“Niall Horan… Did you… by any chance…” She began, out of breath.

‘Yup! I did make them listen to your Look After You cover!” Niall’s eyes were sparkling with mischief at this point, “now please, don’t kill me, I’m driving!”

Niall’s chill tone, in which her smile was perfectly audible, just made Louis star at her with utter shock in her eyes. That girl kept on betraying her!

“Why did you even do this? It’s so old??

\- Well, you haven’t posted any new stuff on your YouTube channel, I didn’t have a choice!” Niall expected a new wave of protest, but when all she heard back was silence, she had to take that opportunity to carry on: “Besides, I told them how good you sound, and they wanted to hear you. They were seriously really impressed… You know they’d be ready to have band practice whenever it suits you best! You’re not Troy Bolton, you can choose basketball _and_ musicals, both football _and_ the band!”

\- Comparing me to a High School Musical character…? Damn Niall, you do know nothing about me.

\- Oh, but I really do!”

Niall pulled over. Surprised, Louis noticed that they had arrived in front of her house. She hadn’t seen it coming and had actually expected them to have a few more minutes. She gave her friend a quick kiss on the cheek, thanking her for the ride; because in spite of everything, she still loved her.

As Louis was walking away, Niall yelled one last: “Promise you’ll think about the band!”

She saw Louis roll her eyes at her, but she also saw her nod with a small smile. That was progress!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it, don't hesitate to let me know :)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, here is a new chapter! I also have made progress on the rest of the fic, and I can say there will be 9 chapters in total (including the ones already posted), I really don't know how other fic writers manage to write several 10k words, it's truly impressive... Anywayyy, I hope you'll enjoy this new chapter :)

Louis was focused on the lecture she was attending for once. It didn’t happen often, but still, it happened sometimes. Her fingers were quickly typing on her keyboard, trying to stay ahead of everything the teacher was saying. Thankfully, that teacher was one of the few that had a perfectly structured lecture. It was clear through and through, and Louis was oh so grateful for it. Even though the course wasn’t the most interesting, the teacher managed to make it sound like it was the most interesting subject in the world.

However, probably because it was so interesting, it was an incredibly intense lecture: Louis barely had any time to check her phone in pocket, busy taking these precious notes. So, when the class ended and she went through the auditorium doors, expecting to see Niall, she was caught off guard when she saw that her friend wasn’t there. She looked around, waited for few seconds… Maybe she was just being messed with, it wouldn’t have been _that_ surprising.

When she realised Niall wasn’t coming, Louis grabbed her phone, ready to send an annoyed and worried “where u at dude”, but as she looked at the screen, she saw the notifications she had missed by being an attentive and serious student… She grumbled silently for a couple of seconds before her face lit up again, checking the snaps Niall had sent. There were a few snaps that basically showed Niall being overly dramatic and making faces with captions that read:

_“soz buddy can’t make it for lunch 2day”_

_“that crap teacher decided to move the class we have tomorrow, today???”_

_“I’m gonna be in cowHELL during lunch”_

_“I hate him is2g”_

_“IM SO HANGRY!! DO SOMETHING”_

_“this is tragic, my life is tragic!!!”_

_“uGH”_

_“pray for me pls”_

There were a few more, caption-less, snaps, showing Niall doing her best impressions of the screaming face emoji, surrounded by several broken hearts. Louis felt for her friend. Having classes during lunchtime was already pretty awful, but having these classes with THAT teacher, was… well… cowHELL indeed. Even though she wasn’t following the same studies as Niall, she also had classes with him. Remember that teacher who would shoot her dirty looks for literally nothing? Yep, that was him. She hated his guts. Even more now that he was holding Niall captive…

Eventually, since there was not much of a point waiting anymore, Louis walked away from the auditorium. She went outside and took a detour on her way to the bench to grab something to eat in the nearest grocery store. It wasn’t the usual one, so it wasn’t going to be the best lunch meal she’d ever had… But that day, eating lunch without Niall, wasn’t the best either, so it made sense.

She started biting on her sandwich on her way to the bench, her stomach immediately felt better, which led her to view in a tiny bit more enthusiastic way the rest of the day. When she finally reached her bench, she saw a familiar silhouette already sitting on it. She wasn’t as annoyed as she had been when she had first seen it there weeks ago. Somehow, you could even say that she was glad.

Harry was sitting alone on the bench, starring at her phone in one hand and absent-mindedly eating from a banana she was holding in her other hand. As Louis came closer to the bench, she found herself observing Harry and her features a bit too much. There was nothing she hadn’t seen the last time they’d interacted, but she was still in awe at how smooth and nice-looking Harry’s face was.

Even though Louis was quiet and usually discreet, Harry must have felt someone come close to her as she turned her head and her eyes instantly met Louis’s. In this sort of situation, Louis would usually look away, too embarrassed to have been caught staring, but it didn’t happen. Instead, she came closer to the bench, still looking at Harry, drowning herself in the blue of the other girl’s eyes.

“Hi.

\- Hey, can I join you?

\- Yeah sure. It’s your bench after all, right?” Harry winked.

Louis rolled her eyes, cursing Niall. Was there anything this girl could keep to herself? Louis wasn’t so sure.

“Are you sure you played any music during your rehearsal yesterday, or did you just bond by talking about me for hours on end?” Louis asked, climbing on the bench to sit the same way Harry was, with her bottom on the backrest. She almost fell off, but she managed to find her balance. She did notice that Harry’s hand was ready to hold her back if she had really fallen… Louis quickly considered actually falling to feel Harry’s grip on her, like that time they had shaken each other’s hands. God, she sounded so lame.

“We had a whole part of the meeting dedicated to you, yep. From your bench, to your cover of Look After You, your voice, your football skills… Everything about you!

\- You know, instead of forming a band, you could just for my fan club.

\- That’s a good idea, but you’re too late. It’s already done. We’ve planned to do both: we’ll have meetings about you and rehearsals for the band… But we’ve been thinking that having both things separated is going to take a lot of time… Like, the best thing would be to have you join the band so we could kill two birds with one stone and gush over you _while_ rehearsing.” Harry looked at Louis, wearing the best of her embarrassed expressions, hiding her smile pretty well. With some more training, she could become a great actress, Louis believed.

“Oh yeah. I understand, it would save you some time…” She pretended to think about it. “And, I could hear praises… That actually sounds very nice.

\- Does it sound like you’re actually considering joining the band? If I’d known, I would have squatted your bench way more instead of just sending you a message…

\- Ohhhh shit! I read it yesterday and I completely forgot to answer, I’m sorry!” It was actually kind of the truth; she had read it over and over again, trying to come up with a great and witty answer. Except, she had had no idea what kind of answer she wanted to give, so she had ended up falling asleep, her phone next to her head. “And yes, I actually am. How could I refuse?

\- I know, right? You really wanted to keep me waiting, didn’t you? Uh, keep _us_ waiting, I mean.

\- Oh yep, that was my main goal. I feel like I should warn you though… That Look After You cover is a thousand years old, maybe I sound like shit now, who knows! Maybe the fan club is going to close as soon as I open my mouth and you’ll have to kick me out…

\- Damn, I hadn’t thought about that. I was blindly trusting Niall and what she said about you sounding even better than you did all these years ago… But maybe she wants to sabotage the band by bringing you in.”

Louis couldn’t believe it… Harry was so dramatic, and that was oh so endearing of her. She had actual butterflies flying in her stomach, and her smile would not leave her lips, no matter how hard she tried to hide it with a grimace. It wasn’t simple nor was it effective. Still, she managed to answer, concealing as best as she could her endearment:

“That sounds like her, she’s actually evil.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it, please don't hesitate to let me know!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Right, now that I have actually finished writing everything, I thought I'd be faster in publishing the remaining chapters, so here you go, have a new one, I hope you like it ! :)

The three members of the nameless band, and the extra (not yet) member (who had to go through an audition that was technically unnecessary) met a few days later, on a Saturday afternoon to be precise. (This has no real importance, just… precision.) The rehearsal/audition/meeting was taking place at Harry’s place. Niall and Louis had carpooled there with Liam. Liam was one of these people who would turn the music really loudly in the car, sing along and have the people in the car sing along as well. It was nice, though it was strange as it didn’t feel quite right. But they had gotten over it. Louis was sitting in the backseat while Niall was in the front, next to Liam. They had initially shared amused looks with each other before completely giving in to the music that came from Liam’s playlist. It was a strange playlist, with tunes rather different that didn’t quite fit with each other. But still, by the time they reached Harry’s apartment, the weirdness had become the most normal.

She didn’t know what she had expected, but as she stepped into Harry’s apartment (after having taken her shoes off, it’s not America, thank you very much), Louis was surprised. Niall had informed her that Harry shared the flat with two other people who actually weren’t students: Rita was an aspiring fashion designer who was earning a living by waitressing at that café near their university, and Nick was a host for an obscure radio show that Louis had never even heard of. (Or maybe she had… But she couldn’t believe Harry genuinely know Nick and lived with him. How extra.)

“Let’s get to it, shall we?” Harry said, her smile digging the familiar dimples into her sweet cheeks. Every single time this happened, Louis found it so hard to stop staring. There was something fascinating about Harry’s dimples, her smile, her face, her entire being…

She eventually realised that Harry was pointing at something… A piano keyboard. Damn… She hadn’t been lying about having Louis audition for the band. She was really going to have to do it.

“Cutting straight to the chase, are we?” Louis asked.

\- Would never do anything straight…” She heard Harry faintly whisper back. She even thought for a second she had caught her grinning.

_Interesting_.

Eventually, Louis sighed and headed towards the piano. She could see that it had only very recently been dusted as some spots had been forgotten in the cleaning process. Louis guessed that piano wasn’t the favoured instrument in this household; she felt offended. She hit a few keys, checking if the piano was properly tuned. It was.

She made herself comfortable while the other three girls were sitting down on the sofa across from her, grabbing notepads. This actually resulted in her feeling a bit tense and stressed out. She breathed in, breathed out. Her fingers flew over the keys, remembering the melody. Then, eventually, she began:

_If I don't say this now, I will surely break_

_As I'm leaving the one I want to take_

_Forgive the urgency, but hurry up and wait_

_My heart has started to separate_

Yes, she had chosen to perform the same song she had posted on the Internet years ago, a cover that all the girls sitting in front of her had heard before. It was the same song, and yet, it was still very different. It was a strange feeling. She could hear and feel how different the song now sounded, now that she had grown and that so had her voice. As she was singing, her eyes were barely open, focused on the keyboard. Her voice was strong and confident; it wasn’t shaking as it had in previous years. She felt great.

Finally, the song ended. She hit the last key, sang the last note. She took a moment of silence, breathed, before raising her head towards the “jury”. Niall was smiling brightly, the same kind of smile she had on her face when Louis was doing well during her football matches. Her eyes were even shinning. (Louis wondered if her best friend wasn’t actually on the verge of crying. It wasn’t that unusual, but dammit Horan, pull yourself together! Or Louis might follow and cry too.) Liam was clapping, visibly quite impressed, while Harry had her head down in her notes.

Somehow, it was her opinion that mattered most to Louis. And she just wanted to hear it. She wanted Harry to tell her that she was good. Not that she needed any kind of reassurance! She had worked on not needing anyone to provide validation and she was doing great. Guess, in this case, she just really needed the words to come out of her crush’s mouth. Wait. “Crush”? What? Nooo. No way. Ignore this.

After remaining silent for a little bit longer, which Louis thought was definitely far too dramatic, Harry eventually turned her notepad over so that Louis could read what was on it. In big black capital letters, Harry had written: “BEAUTIFUL. I’M SPEECHLESS.” Louis’s smile turned brighter, her tummy was warm, Harry was adorable.

The girls then proceeded to, à la X Factor, judge Louis in or out of the band. Eventually, when she received the three enthusiastic Yes’s she needed, she overacted the relief she was feeling, but the happiness was real and overwhelming when she joined in on the group hug that was being held for her. (If you had told her she would get into a band with the Bench Stealers when she’d first seen them… She would have hissed at you.) (But there she was! In this band, with these people, happy.)

Once they got over this nice emotional moment, they started practising for a little while, singing together and trying to harmonise (which turned out to be a bloody joke as they had very little to no real background in music). They still managed to, awkwardly, go through a few songs, like Torn and Viva La Vida, and as they did, time seemed to fly by. They didn’t really notice they were tired until a couple of hours later when they found themselves resting: Niall and Louis sat on the sofa, legs entangled, Liam and Harry sitting on chairs, facing them. They were joking around, whispering because their voices had gone through a lot, and they weren’t used to it.

With a bit of a raspy-sounding voice, Liam broke the almost quiet atmosphere by making a remark: “You know, it’s great how you guys aren’t like the annoying couples, all over each other I mean. It’s refreshing!”

Silently, Harry agreed with a nod. However, her eyes suddenly looked away for some reason.

It took a little while for Niall and Louis to realise they were talking about them. Their heads slowly turned towards each other, their eyes met, and Niall started chocking in between tears of laughter. Louis joined her and the more one was laughing, the more the other was too. They took what felt like ages to calm down. Breathlessly and wiping away her tears, Niall asked:

“Couple?? Do you think Lou and I are a couple? Seriously??”

Across from them, Harry and Liam looked embarrassed. That their theory they had come up with and elaborated for hours on end (no less!) was being laughed at like that…

“Yeah? Aren’t you… like… dating?” Liam tried. She felt a nudge in her arm coming from Harry. The curly-haired girl’s face had turned bright red and she didn’t even dare look at Louis and Niall, who were still giggling and whispering to each other about how funny the joke they had heard was.

“I’m sorry to say we’re just friends, best friends actually! Unfortunately for me and in spite of my best efforts to make myself irresistible to her, Niall just remains far too straight…” Louis bowed her head, acting disappointed. Like she wanted to show Harry that she wasn’t the only one who could pretend they were extra. Louis didn’t have a single bone in her body that wasn’t dramatic.

Speaking of whom, her eyes crossed Harry’s. For a second, she thought she saw a flicker of hope flash through her gaze.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy this new chapter :)

The newly founded band went their separate ways not long after. It was getting late and Niall received a phone call from her mother asking if she was on her way home yet because dinner was going to be ready in next to no time. After hanging up, Niall jumped off the sofa (once she had carefully moved Louis’s legs that were lazily resting on her laps, of course) and started getting ready while explaining that she was now starving as she was picturing the plate she would get as soon as she got home. The talk of food and the prospect of having a nice dinner herself incentivised Louis to move her own butt. It only took, at most, five minutes for them to be on the doorstep with Liam who was still their ride, thanking Harry for having received them and saying that they needed to meet up soon to practice some more. It was mostly Niall saying all of this, Louis was quiet, still half-pretending that she’d been dragged into this band with her nemeses against her will.

As Harry closed the door behind everyone, waved at them from the window of her apartment that overlooked the little street in which Liam had parked, and started making herself pasta, she reflected a bit on the afternoon. She was happy the project of starting a band with Liam had reached this point, everything seemed to be on the way to becoming something great. Not that she was expecting, or hoping even, that the band would be huge or anything other than a couple of friends hanging out and singing together outside of university. She deemed it had been a success and was pretty proud of it all.

Waiting for the water to start boiling, she turned on the radio (she had to support her flatmate after all, and Nick’s show was the only thing she found interesting on the radio, ever. He was just so witty and funny, had great taste in music and, at times, tackled current events so Harry could stay updated on what was wrong with the world). She leaned against the kitchen counter, closing her eyes while a quite soothing song was playing in the background. Her phone lit up in her hands, interrupting the quiet moment she was having. It was a message from Niall, thanking her again for having the meeting for the band and for accepting Louis in too even though, she said, she wouldn’t have trusted Harry’s judgement on anything if she hadn’t.

Harry smiled and started to type an answer back, along the lines of “it was my pleasure, she’s pretty good, thank you for letting us listen to her cover”. As she was going to switch her phone off again, she saw she had a message from Louis this time: _“That was really cool! Thank you for letting me in the band/my own fan club, looking forward to doing it again.”_

She stared at the message for a bit too long and finally, the bubbling noise of the water in the pan stopped her train of thoughts (which was mostly empty, she was just happy to have a message from Louis, give the girl a break!). The water was now boiling, and the pasta weren’t ready to be put in it. Harry panicked a little bit, turning the gas down so that she had enough time to quickly grab a pack of pasta before the water started overflowing and spill everywhere. Accidentally (or was it?) she didn’t manage to control herself and ended up pouring the entire pack in the pan. She grabbed her phone to put the timer on (because that is the kind of person she is, the kind who follows the instructions on the side of the pack of pasta to the letter) but in the precipitation, she almost dropped it, and when she managed to catch it, her fingers slipped on the screen and next thing she knew, she had accidentally video called Louis and was faced with Louis’s (beautiful) face.

“Liam’s dropped me just now if you wanted to talk to her!”

Eyes wide-open and surprised, Harry’s instincts kicked in, took over her brain and she hung up immediately. “Shit shit shit” she mumbled to herself.

Once she got the pasta situation under control, Harry went back on her conversation with Louis. A pathetic 8 seconds video call was the last thing that appeared on there. She could only imagine what Louis was thinking about her at this very moment… She probably believed Harry was an idiot (Harry couldn’t argue with that) and a rude one at that (that was not true, Harry reckoned she was probably one of the politest people she knew), when in reality, all Harry was, was a clumsy mess.

_“Hi, I’m really sorry. Calling you was an accident; I was making pasta and I can’t even explain how anything happen, but my phone slipped, and I called you. Sorry for hanging up. I hope you got home alright!”_

_“Oh and, yes, this afternoon was great! Hopefully we can do something like that next week. We’ll have to organise that, but it should be fine.”_

Harry breathed in and out, why was texting that girl so stressful? Don’t worry though, she wasn’t totally unaware. She knew that she very much had a crush on Louis. Louis wasn’t just intimidating because of how confident she was; she also was the coolest and prettiest girl Harry had ever laid eyes on. She’d had a crush on her for a while now. She’d seen her sit on that bench, she’d heard her quietly sing along to the music she was listening to as she was entering the university building. Every single time she had seen her, her heart had skipped a bit. It was sappy but true.

She looked down at her phone, waiting for a new notification to appear, but it didn’t seem to come. She hoped Louis wasn’t offended or hurt. Gosh, she would hate it if she’d hurt Louis’s feelings.

Because she couldn’t stand waiting there for nothing to happen, she drained her pasta over the sink without even trying one to see if they were properly cooked. She found herself with really _al dente_ pasta, which she hadn’t planned for, but after all these emotions, she was just glad to have something to eat. She put the extra amount she’d made in a glass dish and texted Nick and Rita on their group chat to let them know they could help themselves if they wanted to. Eventually she added pesto to her plate and went to sit in front of the TV, putting on a quiz show she liked in the background. For a while, eating and thinking made her forget about the text she had sent Louis.

Once she was done (which happened faster than it would for a normal person), she pushed her empty bowl on the coffee table in front of her and proceeded to snuggle on the sofa, wrapping herself in the blanket. Comfortable and warm, it didn’t take long for her to start falling asleep.

She was startled awake but the sound of the entrance door closing a little too harshly and the voices of both Rita and Nick laughing and talking about some guy they had found cute at the café where Rita had finished her shift. After turning the light of the living room on, they eventually noticed Harry on the couch. Her eyes were now half-open, which, to Nick, was merely an invitation to start teasing.

“Wakey wakey sleeping beauty! You’re so old you fall asleep before 9?”

As only answer, Harry mumbled. Using all the energy that was left in her body, she got up, grabbed her pasta bowl and went to put it in the dishwasher, still wrapped like a burrito in the blanket. Her head was now hurting… Ugh, she knew she shouldn’t nap, especially not so close to her actual bedtime…

She did manage to hold a conversation with her housemates for a little while. She liked catching up with them and learning what they’d been doing over the day. They always had the most peculiar things happening to them and the way they told their stories was about as entertaining as if she had seen the events happen with her own two eyes. She laughed and smiled, and then it was time for her to go to sleep as her head seemed to be about to explode.

She checked her phone for what she wanted it to be the last time before she went to switch off the lights. She had a message from Louis(!).

_“Wow, sounds interesting! Wish I’d stayed behind and seen how one can make pasta in such a chaotic way!”_

Harry’s cheeks got pink again, she replied to Louis with the gif of a lady saying “pasta makes people happy” (which it does, really, for the record), and then she drifted off.


	7. Chapter 7

Weeks went by, even months. The members of the band got closer with every rehearsal. Actually, they didn’t quite know what they were even rehearsing for – as there was no particular musical event they wanted to attend. Sure, they could have tried to perform at the café Rita worked at, since every couple of nights, they did get local bands to come and perform on their little stage. But, after weighting the pros and cons of it all and having endless conversations, they had decided this wasn’t what they were in the band for. Instead, they simply had fun and took advantage of the situation to improve their own skills: their mastery of their respective instrument, their ability to harmonise with each other and simply their singing. Who knew where the future would lead them. It was better than nothing to be prepared for any eventuality, whether they remained together or went on their own solo paths.

On top of helping each other out as a band, they had also simply become a close group of friends and they could help each other out when it came to university as well. It was clearly not what they were talking about most though, and they actually tried their best to talk about university-related things as little as possible, but it sometimes happened, and if it did, they knew they could count on each other.

With the weeks and months that went by, they grew so much closer. To the point where they were now meeting for lunch and sharing the bench that had once been the cause of discord (in Louis’s head anyway). They were seeing each other almost all the time and they missed each other when they didn’t. It was especially the case for Louis and Harry, obviously. The tension (the sexual and romantic tension, of course) between them had kept getting stronger and stronger, but neither of them had done anything about it… To the great despair of their two other bandmates. Niall and Liam had started talking about their friends behind their backs and about the Situation. They couldn’t take it any longer. Part of them were even scared that the two girls would just never do anything. Louis was stubbornly proud and flirty while Harry couldn’t for the life of her bring herself to make a move (a move that wasn’t looking at Louis with the most loving eyes that is).

That day, they were supposed to meet at Louis’s house for a sleepover, and as it was a Friday night, they could even extend it and chill for the whole weekend. Her family was away, so they could rehearse as loud as they wanted without bothering anyone (but the neighbours… but would they care if they had a free concert perform by one of the best local bands ever?), and they had access to all the mattresses of Louis’s siblings so everyone would be able to sleep comfortably. It was the perfect plan.

Over lunchtime at university (sitting on the bench they were now sharing!), they had gone over their organisation, to be as prepared as possible (Harry was one of those people that enjoyed when everything was crystal clear, assuring there would be no hiccups). Liam had a later class than all of them, so they had decided not to go straight to Louis’s after the rest of their classes had ended. This way, they all were able to drop their stuff off at their apartment’s or house’s before coming to her home, free from any university-related things and ready to have a good time. Harry would then take public transportation, while Liam and Niall would carpool together, which had become one of the things they enjoyed doing together the most. (Niall had grown to appreciate Liam’s weird musical tastes, and she found herself singing along to them too.)

* * *

Everything was ready for her guests to arrive. Louis had arranged the mattresses in her room (she had made an absolute mess in the twins’ rooms (both sets of them, oops), but they weren’t coming back until the middle of the following week, so it was absolutely fine! Everything would go back to its rightful place once the band returned to their own homes. That was A+ planning. (Yes, as soon as the room was properly organised, Louis did give herself a pat on the back, she deserved it!) Now all she had to do was wait. Liam’s classes had finished a few minutes before so it wouldn’t be much longer until her guests started arriving. All the ingredients for dinner were ready on the kitchen counter to make sure the meal was freshly made, and that hopefully it could suit everyone’s tastes. Louis had never been really comfortable in the kitchen, but she did enjoy cooking for the people she cared about… When she had to.

There was a knock on the door. She jumped off the sofa and almost ran to the door.

Seconds later, she returned to the sofa, a parcel in her hands. She couldn’t believe the audacity of the delivery person… Knocking when she was expecting guests?? How dare they?! Anyway, she was really happy with the parcel that had come, if you were wondering. It was a hairband to prevent her long fringe from getting too much in her face when she was playing the piano. She tried it on, snapped a selfie for Niall (and to see how she actually looked with it, obviously) (she looked cool, thank you for asking), and then took it off just as she heard another knock on the door. It couldn’t be _another_ parcel this time, right? Unless one of her fashion-enthusiast sisters had gotten something else for themselves… Only way to find out was to open the door.

When she eventually did, she found herself facing Harry’s wonderful smile. Her dimples, man… Had she mentioned Harry’s dimples before? Yes? Well, they still were fascinating, and her eyes? She wanted to drown in them. She pulled herself together quickly and gestured for Harry to step into her humble house.

“Hiiii! Please, come on in, make yourself at home, you know your way around already!”

Was she rambling? She was, wasn’t she? AH. She couldn’t wait for Niall and Liam to arrive so she wouldn’t stay this awkward any more than necessary.

Don’t get her wrong, she did get on with Harry very well, they had fun together without needing any of the other two around! It could just get hard at times, when she obviously felt things for Harry and didn’t know if Harry felt them back… She knew Harry wasn’t straight either, but eh, that didn’t mean much! Maybe she thought Louis was disgusting; it was a possibility; everything was.

Once Harry took her shoes and jacket off, the two went to the sofa and chatted for a bit about their respective afternoon. The conversation was flowing. Even though she thought she was, Louis wasn’t awkward at all. She was comfortable around Harry and wanted to stay around her for as long as humanly possible. Who would have thought she would ever feel like this about someone who she’d met because they’d stolen her bench one day?

“Oh, that looks nice! Did you get it for the band practice? Harry asked, noticing the hairband that had stayed on the coffee table in front of the sofa.

\- Yeah, I was getting a bit tired of having to shake my head constantly to keep the hair out!

\- I thought it made you look mysterious!” Harry smiled.

Without a second thought (or even a first), Louis’s hand extended towards Harry, tousling her hair: “There you go, you’re mysterious too now!”

As dramatically as possible, Harry acted as if she’d gone blind and couldn’t see anymore – which wasn’t far from the truth as her curls were now hanging in front of her eyes, and on top of that, she was keeping them firmly shut. Her hands went to touch Louis’s face, to feel it, to see it with her palms. Her fingers wandered across Louis’s cheeks, forehead, nose… lips… The feeling of Harry’s fingertips on her mouth gave Louis chills. She felt them go all over her body, she even closed her eyes and breathed out quietly. Suddenly, she grabbed Harry’s hand, which caused both of them to open their eyes and stare at each other with such an intensity everything around us disappeared.

Slowly, Louis let go of Harry’s hand. Her living room was now dead silent with the tension that existed between the two of them. Harry was staring at her in between her curls. That was too much seriousness for Louis. She grabbed her hairband quickly and used it to pull Harry’s hair back. She looked so cute.

“Perfect!, she smiled, it suits you, maybe you should keep it!

\- Nah it’s fine, I appreciate it though!, Harry took the hairband off and put it back on the table, mh, do you have any idea when the others are getting here?”

With the atmosphere change that had happened between them, Louis had almost forgotten the other girls were supposed to join them. She looked at her phone: no new messages from anyone, which she thought meant that the girls were on their way. But, looking at the time, it had been a while, and they should probably have arrived by now…

“I’m going to call Niall now, alright?”

Louis stood up and walked towards the open kitchen. She was the kind of person who enjoyed pacing when on a phone call. She knew of some people who _hated_ phone calls, and she wasn’t one of them. She loved it actually. It was quick and direct. Problem-solving was far easier through a phone call than by waiting for text messages. Not that there was a problem here, she thought. Or was there?

“Hey, what’s up? Niall’s cheery voice replied immediately after the first ring.

\- What’s up? Where are you?

\- Oh, sorry, we’re not coming! Don’t get it wrong, we love you! We just thought you might need some time alone together, to do something about that tension between you two. We’ll pop by tomorrow if you still want us to, but tonight, it’s Larry time! Don’t be mad, love you BYEEEE!”

Niall hung up. Louis hadn’t even had time to start pacing. She was just standing there confused, a little shocked even. Harry turned her head on the sofa to look at her with an intrigued look across her face.

“She didn’t reply?

\- No, she did…

\- Oh, what did she say? Is something wrong?

\- She said some of her distant family showed up unexpectedly and Liam wasn’t feeling well…

\- Guess it’s just us two tonight then!”


	8. Chapter 8

She had lied to Harry. She couldn’t even believe she had done so. And she couldn’t believe how easy it had come to her, as if she’d been rehearsing her lie for ages. But, after all, did she have a choice? She couldn’t have just told Harry that “nah, our friends are not showing up tonight because they are a bit tired of us flirting with each other and not doing anything about it”. No, definitely not.

Soon after the phone call – still a little bit in shock because of the conversation (if you could call it that) she had had with Niall… That girl was really out to ruin her life… or to make it better? Who knew? – Louis decided to start cooking. It was about time after all, her tummy was grumbling, and she was pretty sure she had heard Harry’s make the faintest (cutest?) noise. Now that it was just the two of them and they weren’t expecting anyone else, she was ready to get into her apron, and start showing Harry how much of an amazing cook she was.

Harry eventually left her seat on the couch to join her in the kitchen. She leant against the counter, all the while making sure that she wasn’t in the chef’s way, if she had understood anything from watching Kitchen Nightmare a lot, it was that the chef was not to be disturbed when in the kitchen. In spite of that, they still played music loudly and sang while Louis was preparing her signature dish for them. The awkwardness that had happened earlier was gone and they were back to simply being girlfriends who didn’t fully realise that they were.

When the dinner was closed to being ready and Louis was doing the last bits of preparation, Harry was tasked with setting the table, which means she just had to brush up against Louis in the kitchen, butt-to-butt most of the times. Louis didn’t mind at all; she did enjoy whatever contact she could get with Harry. She was enjoying these moments and their closeness as much as possible, especially since she was planning on sitting Harry down for a serious chat once they were done with dinner. She hoped dinner would last forever, but they both were hungry, and the food was going to be tasty, so realistically, she doubted it was going to take that much time…

“ _Et voilà, madame!,_ Louis exclaimed as she set Harry’s plate in front of her, here is the house’s famous chicken stuffed with mozzarella cheese, wrapped in Parma ham. With a side of mashed potatoes. _Bon appétit_!

\- Wow, it smells amazing Louis, thank you for cooking dinner!”

Louis did a little curtsy before getting her own plate and sitting down. She was HUNGRY.

* * *

With a content sigh, Louis and Harry sat down on the sofa again. They had enjoyed their dinner until the very last mouthful, they had cleaned and put away everything so that the kitchen was all shiny again. It was likely that Louis had cleaned everything up with more application than usual, eager to delay the conversation she was telling herself she needed to have with Harry for as long as she possibly could. But eventually, there was nothing left to eat, and nothing left to do in the kitchen. So, they retreated to the sofa, full and happy with their dinner. It was nice and quiet, being the two of them. If you’d added Niall into the mix, Louis would have been talking non-stop – maybe that’s what was so great about being around Harry: her presence seemed to allow her to relax, to chill and to recharge her batteries.

“We should talk”, they both said at the same time. Wow, that was some next level soulmate bullshit if you asked Louis. She hadn’t expected to share an actual brain with the curly-haired bench stealer (yep, she did revert to that nickname for Harry from time to time… Especially after thinking about her as her _soulmate_!). She wondered what Harry might want to talk about though… She had to seize the opportunity to delay _that_ conversation some more!

“You go first!” She said quickly before Harry could say the same thing at the same time again. She sat back on the sofa and allowed herself to relax a little bit.

Little did she know…

“Right… Liam texted me and I know she’s not unwell. I know the real reason we’re alone tonight.”

Both Niall and Liam had decided to ruin Louis’s life. There was nothing she was more certain of in her life.

“I understand why you lied, don’t worry! It would have been awkward to have that piece of information out loud in the open like that, so thank you, in a way… But they’re right and personally I need to know. It’s been months and I’d like to think that we’re friends now and that we can tell each other anything…”

Louis couldn’t shake the feeling that Harry was repeating something she had been rehearsing in her head – if not at home in front of a mirror – for a while. They couldn’t seem to look at each other. They both had their heads down, looking at their knees. From the corner of her eye, Louis could see Harry fidgeting with her hands, she could feel her nervousness and in turn, it made her feel the same way.

“Look Louis, I just want to know… I have feelings for you, I’ll get over them if I need to! But, is there any chance that you feel the same way?”

Like the little shit that she was, Louis turned her head towards Harry who was visibly still really stressed out. She rested her chin on her hand, in a pensive way. Inside, her heart was pounding – she was even afraid it was so loud it might ruin the moment by letting Harry know she wasn’t as chill as she pretended to be.

“When you say feelings… You mean hate right?”

Harry finally lifted up her head and looked at Louis. Boy, did she look hurt. Her brows were furrowed, her features’ softness seemed to have vanished. She was grave. Serious. She stood up, ready to leave.

“If you can’t take this seriously, I guess I have my answer.”

 _No no no no_! That’s not what Louis had meant! Of course she took everything seriously, so seriously because she cared so much! She stood up to and grabbed Harry’s hand as fast as she could before she even had the possibility to escape.

“I didn’t mean that! I have feelings for you too Harry! So many!”

To make it clear what kind of feelings she was talking about, Louis brought her face closer to Harry’s and closed her eyes, leaving it up to Harry to close the distance between them. If she didn’t, Louis would just end up looking really stupid, but eh… she had kind of asked for it after all. Luckily, she felt soft and tender lips touch hers soon enough after she’d closed her eyes. Harry’s personality was written all over her kisses: it was initially shy, but grew more intense with each breath, it was warm and gentle. The butterflies in Louis’s stomach were flying all around inside her body, along with a wave of chills, from her very tippy toes, to the end of her hair. Her arms were wrapped around Harry, and she didn’t want to ever let go. One of Harry’s hands was resting on her hip, pulling her closer, while the other one was caressing her face with unrivalled tenderness.

They pulled apart to catch their breath for a second, foreheads still touching. Their hands moved away from each other’s bodies, to simply intertwined their fingers together. Louis had never felt this amount of tenderness from or towards anyone. (Not counting her mum, obviously, but she didn’t want to think about her mum at that moment, thank you.)

“I’m sorry it seemed like I wasn’t serious.” She whispered.

Without answering – but maybe it was an answer in itself – Harry led Louis against a wall and went back for a kiss, biting Louis’s lips (which surprised her very much, who would’ve thought shy Harry could get rough like that? Not that she was complaining, at all!).


	9. Chapter 9

When she opened her eyes, the sun was shining bright inside of the room, the rays touching her bare skin (the cover was on the floor at the very end of the bed; she remembered she’d felt too lazy to bring it back up on the bed the night before), giving her an enjoyable extra amount of warmth. Who had said that it only ever rained in England? Because Louis had a thing or two to say to them!

She couldn’t believe the sight that she had before her very eyes. She couldn’t believe what she’d done the night before. Couldn’t believe that YES, she had had SEX for the first time, with Harry no less! The Bench Stealer! (What? Calling her that was getting old? Good point.) Louis moved her body forward so she could spoon Harry again – the heat she could still feel emanating from her body reminded her of why exactly she’d have to move away a little during the night, but she needed warming up again. She put her arm around Harry, kissed her back and the back of her neck. Harry’s smell was amazing and intoxicating, that was all Louis ever wanted to breathe.

She stayed like this for a while, holding Harry in her arms, tightly, until the arm she was laying on started falling asleep. She then proceeded to get out of bed, as quietly as possible (Sleeping Beauty over there didn’t move a muscle, she was sound asleep). Judging from the sun, it was probably past the middle of the morning by then, Louis wouldn’t have been surprised if the afternoon was beginning.

She grabbed her phone that was still in the living room, where she’d left it; guess she hadn’t had a good reason to pay attention to anything that wasn’t Harry the night before. She had a message from Niall from an hour earlier: _“No news means good news, right? Hope you guys had a conversation and are doing well now. Liam and I are going to come by at 11 to practice for a bit, don’t worry we’ll bring lunch! Love you!! Xx_ ”

The time at the top of her phone said 10:50. Louis had to look three times before she realised that it meant Liam and Niall were going to show up in ten minutes. Worst thing was that she couldn’t even rely on Niall being late: that girl was always on time so much so that it could become annoying, especially now, when Harry was still asleep, looking like the most beautiful princess in the history of the universe. How could Louis even begin to wake her up? She’d hoped they would have more time to each other… Oh well, the weekend was only beginning she guessed.

She went back in her room, Harry had turned over and was now cuddling Louis’s side of the bed and her pillow. Her curls were resting softly on her shoulder. She was quietly snoring, looking content (Louis was hoping she was feeling as content as she looked, because _she_ was). She sat on the bed and gently caressed Harry’s hair. She leaned forward and kissed her earlobe, whispering “you need to wake up beautiful”. Slowly, Harry started to move, started stretching her limbs, whilst her eyes were still struggling to open. When, eventually, she opened them, she saw Louis looking at her. Both girls couldn’t quite put into words just how lucky they thought they were at that precise moment.

“I don’t mean to rush you, but Niall and Liam are going to show up really soon… Take your time, I’m going to go shower now!”

Louis stood up and started leaving. Suddenly, she felt Harry’s hand grab her wrist, she turned around and Harry was pursing her lips waiting for a kiss, which Louis gladly gave her.

* * *

When the two other girls arrived, Harry had just gone under the shower, so they had to wait some more to see how things were really between Louis and Harry now. Louis was keeping quiet on the events of the previous night, in a mixture of mischief and genuine need to have Harry by her side to know what she would be comfortable to let their friends know.

Harry finally appeared, her hair still wet, looking radiant and happy. She joined their friends, went next to Louis and immediately went to hold her hand. It seemed perfect how their hands fit together, like they were made just for each other’s.

Liam and Niall high fived. Louis and Harry were _finally_ real girlfriends.


	10. Chapter 10

“GO! LOUIS! GOOOO!” Harry was shouting at the top of her lungs, even though she was pretty sure Louis couldn’t even hear her as she was shuffling across the football field, focused on her craft and eager to end the season (and her career in the university football team) on a high. And so far, that’s exactly what she was doing. She had already scored a few of goals for her team (Harry couldn’t remember how many precisely, but it was more than two) and she was still going strong. Next to Harry, Liam and Niall were screaming too, cheering for Louis’s team at any chance they could, and right next to them, Louis’s family was there too. Harry had met the whole Tomlinson bunch a couple of days into their relationship: she was there when they had returned from their time away and, though she was utterly terrified to meet them, she was welcomed with open arms. As it turned out, Louis had mentioned her several times and her mother Jay had been able to tell, from seeing her daughter’s enthusiasm, that there were feelings there.

Harry liked Jay a lot, she was kind of her like her own mother – in some strange way, she couldn’t wait for their families to meet but it still felt like it was too soon (she hoped to be with Louis forever, so “too soon” was a strange concept and she just wanted their forever to start as soon as possible). She also got along with Louis’s siblings and had no problems maintaining a conversation with them when her girlfriend (yes, her _girlfriend_ , she always felt giddy when she thought of Louis that way) left the room – it was pretty easy because most of them were like Louis and were chatterboxes.

Louis had also met her family over a dinner that had gone wonderfully well. Before Louis’s arrival, Harry had begged her sister Gemma not to say anything to embarrass her, she hadn’t listened and told some stories about teenager Harry, but thankfully it had been funnier than expected and it had just contributed to the good atmosphere around the table.

Everyone getting along was amazing, as though it always was meant to be.

The referee whistled, signalling the end of the match. Louis’s team had won, by far! After celebrating, and hugging her teammates on the field, she ran towards the public, gave her mother a quick hug then headed towards her girlfriend. Louis’s sisters gestured, giving Harry a heads-up that their sister probably didn’t smell like a fresh flower right now. Harry understood what they meant too late, her nose was already resting on Louis’s sweaty neck and, instinctively, she had started smelling her. Her eyes opened wide, a little shocked, but she shrugged to herself and hugged Louis even tighter. When she let go, she saw the biggest smile on Louis’s face, AH, she loved her so much!

Eventually, Louis followed her teammates to the locker room, had a quick shower and came back out, carrying her things, walking along with her best friends from her team, notably Zayn who had been phenomenal too during the match today. Niall went towards them to quickly congratulate and hug Zayn. They’d had that coffee they’d talked about and had a proper catch-up on each other’s lives and had become closer, just like they’d once been before. Niall was the kind of person who managed to maintain a close friendship with multiple people so that no one felt left out. She’d even mentioned the band to Zayn (after talking about that idea with them, of course) as she knew for a fact that Zayn had a wonderful voice, but it didn’t seem like something she was interested in pursuing – and she wasn’t pretending like Louis had initially did – so Niall had dropped the idea. Still, her life didn’t revolve around the band, so she made sure to have enough time to dedicate to their friendship; she didn’t intend on letting it slip away again, especially now that the summer holidays were starting. Unlike Louis, she was pursuing her studies the next year with a master’s degree; she was really excited about it, Louis had even promised she would visit her and make sure they could still eat lunch together from time to time.

She looked at her friend who was smiling and cuddling with Harry, who would have thought things would turn out the way they had?

In order to celebrate the end of the season, the end of the university year and the start of the summer holiday, Louis and her family had decided to throw a party at their house the evening of the same day with all of her teammates and friends. It was planned a little after the end of the match so people could get changed into comfier clothes and bring back from their house the food they had prepared. It was going to be a cosy gathering.

Liam, Niall and Harry weren’t like the other guests though and they drove straight to Louis’s house once the match was over; Louis was even in the car with them while her mother was in the bigger car with her siblings.

Their things were already at Louis’s, especially Harry’s as she was sleeping over more often than not. She couldn’t get enough of sharing the same space as Louis and even though she knew they weren’t exactly there yet, she could see them moving in with each other relatively soon. And she couldn’t wait. It was just so comfortable going to bed and waking up next to Louis every day, seeing her face and hearing her voice first thing in the morning and last thing at night. It was so easy. She had also managed to unlock (she thought as if getting to know Louis was like a video game) Louis’s sappiness. Harry had been scared that Louis would forever try to appear chill, but as it turned out, Louis was the sappiest person she’d ever met, and also slightly needy, which she loved.

* * *

She felt Louis’s arms sneak up around her and hold her so tightly she wasn’t sure she would be able to properly breathe for a longer amount of time. Harry had changed into a flowery summer dress and had asked Louis to help with the one button in the back. Louis had seized the opportunity to slowly kiss Harry’s back, which had prompted Liam and Niall to exit the room quickly, in a dramatic way: covering their eyes and making their ways towards the door without looking at them at all.

“Chill! I’m not doing anything guys!” Louis had said, but the “damage” was done, and they were out of the room. “I love you.” She’d then whispered in Harry’s ear, before wrapping her arms around her waist. She was now resting her chin on Harry’s shoulder, breathing softly, obviously waiting for an answer. Any answer. Just something. She couldn’t bear the silence.

“When you say love… You mean as a friend, right?”

She felt Louis pinch her love handles. “Ouch!” She turned around to look at Louis, her _girlfriend_ , in the eye. For a second, she just stared back at her, mischievous, as if to say: _see? It’s not the nicest thing to hear during a serious conversation!_ But she kept it to herself and when she opened her mouth, the only thing that came out of it was a quiet but confident: “I love you, too”.

IT FELT NICE. To not have to control herself anymore. She said it about ten more times, so did Louis. It was as though they’d been refraining themselves from saying it for too long and that allowing themselves to finally say was like breaking down a dam.

* * *

The evening went well, the band was dancing with each other to the sound of the music that was playing in the background. They weren’t performing tonight because it wasn’t that kind of night, but they still were singing at the top of their lungs as if they were at a concert. Adults, teammates and other youngsters were looking at them, amused. Some younger siblings of the members of the football team went to them, saying they should audition as a band for some obscure TV show, well-intentioned ideas that they just weren’t interested in. They wanted to stay the way they were.

At some point though, Louis’s phone started ringing and sneakily, she retreated to her room. Niall looked at Harry, her face reading like a question mark. Harry shrugged as she didn’t know anything and turned to Liam to see if she knew something? No luck there either.

Intrigued, the three girls headed towards Louis’s room. At that very moment, she opened the door and invited them in. It was all very strange.

“I’ve been putting videos of some of her covers and songs on my YouTube channel, and it’s garnered attention and views… I was just called by an agent who’s interested in signing us, as a band, all of us.”

Harry, Niall and Liam just stared at her, their mouths half-opened, waiting for Louis to talk some more. She just loved the suspense and keeping her friends in the dark and the unknown.

“I told them we weren’t interested!”

A few silent seconds went by. Maybe it was only a few milliseconds, but somehow it also felt like an eternity and a half, before the girls finally exclaimed:

“Pheeeew”

“Oh my god, you scared me for a second there!”

“No but seriously, imagine what would have happened! Brr, I have the shivers just thinking about it.”

“Uh uh, no way!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for making it until the very end :) I hope you enjoyed reading this little fic!


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